The fund invests mainly in high quality corporate bonds, with the aim of delivering a higher income and capital growth than that available from investment in UK government fixed income securities of similar maturities (the length of time until the final repayment date). The fund manager may also hold up to 20% of the portfolio in other fixed income investments. Exposure to these assets is gained through physical holdings and the use of derivatives. The fund manager is assisted by an in-house team of independent credit analysts in the selection of individual bond issues.

?A fund’s ongoing charges figure (OCF) is similar to the old-style total expense ratio. It reflects the annual charge to investors in the fund, in percentage terms, but does not include extra performance-related fees (where these are levied) or the fund’s trading expenses on its underlying investments.

0.66%

Fund size

£4,453m (£4,598m last year)

FE Risk score

?FE Risk Scores measure the riskiness of instruments relative to the FTSE 100 index of shares. Weekly volatility is measured over three years with recent behaviour counting more heavily than earlier behaviour. Cash-type investments will have scores close to zero. Funds will tend to have scores in the 0-150 range. The FTSE 100 is always scored at 100. There is no upper limit.

?Alpha is a measure of a fund's over- or under-performance by comparison to its benchmark. If the Alpha is 5, the fund has outperformed its benchmark by 5%; so the greater the Alpha, the greater the outperformance.

0.6

Beta

?Beta estimates a fund's volatility by comparison to that of its benchmark. A fund with a beta close to 1 means that the fund will move generally in line with the benchmark. Higher than 1 and the fund is more volatile than the benchmark and vice versa.

0.94

Sharpe

?This commonly-used measure calculates the level of return over and above the return of a notional risk-free investment, such as cash. The difference in returns is then divided by the fund's volatility. The resulting ratio is an indication of the amount of excess return generated per unit of risk.

0.39

Volatility

?Volatility (or standard deviation), when applied to an investment fund, expresses its risk. It shows how widely a range of returns varied from the fund's average return over a particular period. For example, if a fund had an average return of 5%, and its volatility was 15, this would mean that the range of its returns over the period had swung between +20% and -10%.

5.18

Tracking error

?This measures the standard deviation of a fund's excess returns over the returns of an index or benchmark portfolio. As such, it can be an indication of 'riskiness' in the manager's investment style. A Tracking Error below 2 suggests a passive approach. At 3 and above the the manager will be deploying a more active investment style.

1.53

Information ratio

?This is a useful risk-adjusted measure of actively managed fund performance. It is calculated by deducting the returns of the fund's benchmark from the fund's overall returns, then dividing the result by its tracking error. The higher the Information Ratio the better. It is generally considered that a figure of 0.5 reflects a good performance, 0.75 very good, and 1.00 outstanding.

0.17

R-Squared

?An indication of how closely correlated a fund is to an index or a benchmark. Values for R-Squared range between 0 and 1, with 0 indicating no correlation at all and 1 showing a perfect match. Values upwards of 0.7 suggest that the fund's behaviour is increasingly linked to its benchmark.

0.92

Price movement

52 week high72.64

52 week low64.08

Current bid price-

Current offer price-

Current mid price69.01

Region

1

UK

54.42%

2

USA

23.94%

3

France

6.93%

4

Germany

2.36%

5

International

2.08%

6

Italy

2.02%

7

Money Market

2%

8

Spain

1.8%

9

Netherlands

1.49%

Industry sector

1

Asset/Mortgage-Backed Securities

19.13%

2

Telecommunications

11.46%

3

Banks

9.91%

4

Utilities

9.06%

5

Insurance

5.9%

6

Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods

5.43%

7

Real Estate

4.88%

8

Government Bonds

4.61%

9

Electronics

4.2%

Asset type

1

UK Corporate Fixed Interest

52.03%

2

US Corporate Fixed Interest

23.23%

3

French Corporate Fixed Interest

5.59%

4

UK Gilts

2.85%

5

German Corporate Fixed Interest

2.36%

6

Global Corporate Fixed Interest

2.08%

7

Money Market

2%

8

Dutch Corporate Fixed Interest

1.49%

9

Spanish Corporate Fixed Interest

1.37%

Individual holdings

1

TREASURY 4.75% GILT 07/12/38 GBP

1.62%

2

LLOYDS BANK PLC 5.125% NTS 07/03/25 GBP100000

1.59%

3

IMPERIAL BRANDS FINANCE PLC 9% GTD NTS 17/02/22 GBP50000

1.27%

4

TREASURY 3.25% GILT 22/01/44 GBP0.01

1.24%

5

WELLS FARGO BANK NA 5.25% SUBORD NTS 01/08/23 GBP50000

1.06%

6

AT&T INC 4.875% UNSEC BDS 01/06/44 GBP100000

1.04%

7

MICROSOFT CORP 4% BDS 12/02/55 USD2000

0.83%

8

MONDELEZ INTL INC 4.5% BDS 03/12/35 GBP1000

0.82%

9

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC 5.012% BDS 21/08/54 USD2000

0.82%

Management

Fund manager group

M&G

Fund manager company

M&G UK

Fund type

OEIC

Fund objective

The fund invests mainly in high quality corporate bonds, with the aim of delivering a higher income and capital growth than that available from investment in UK government fixed income securities of similar maturities (the length of time until the final repayment date). The fund manager may also hold up to 20% of the portfolio in other fixed income investments. Exposure to these assets is gained through physical holdings and the use of derivatives. The fund manager is assisted by an in-house team of independent credit analysts in the selection of individual bond issues.

Benchmark

No Specified Index

Investment style

None

Investment method

Fixed Interest

Fund managers

Name

Since

Biography

Richard Woolnough

27/02/2004

Richard Woolnough joined M&G in January 2004 and is fund manager of the M&G Optimal Income Fund, the M&G Corporate Bond Fund and the M&G Strategic Corporate Bond Fund, three of the company's flagship fixed interest funds. Richard began his career at Lloyds Merchant Bank in 1985, moving to Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali two years later, followed by SG Warburg. In 1995, he became a fund manager at Old Mutual. Richard graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc in Economics.

Ben Lord

01/01/2007

Ben Lord joined M&G in 2007 and is the fund manager of the M&G UK Inflation Linked Corporate Bond Fund. Ben has also managed the M&G Global Corporate Bond Fund from launch in September 2013 and was appointed fund manager of the M&G Index Linked Bond Fund in July 2015. Ben previously worked at Gordian Knot as a credit analyst covering global financial institutions. He obtained an MA (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh and is a CFA charterholder.

The Content is only for your general information and use and is not intended to address your particular requirements. The Content does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation or arrangement by Moneywise and is not intended to be relied upon by you in making (or refraining from making) any specific investment or other decisions. Appropriate independent advice should be obtained before making any such decision.

This information is sourced from our partner Financial Express. We believe the data to be correct however you should take care in using any information.

You should be aware that prices may fall as well as rise and that the income derived can go down as well as up. When buying or selling any investment that fluctuates in price or value you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance.

Email Newsletters

Stay up to date with the latest news, ideas, bargains, rates, scam warnings and more...

Your finances fixed - all the info you need to inspire good financial habits

More information

Our other sites

News, articles and guides on all things money related, from pensions and investments to savings and mortgages. Moneywise offers independent news and views, video and blogs as well as uniquely independent and interactive comparison services.